Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

The Covid Oracle of London is dutifully wearing his face mask, staying two metres away from everyone and only venturing out when essential; and will continue to do so for the rest of his life, praying that a miracle vaccine will be found.

The people living in the real world have already started to accept that coronavirus is here to stay and that it is time to stop listening to the unscientific scientists being consistently wrong and get back to living life.

Put measures in place to protect the particularly vulnerable and the rest of us can get our lives back. Influenza kills tens of thousands every winter and that has become accepted as the norm, so equally it will be accepted as the norm that coronavirus will cull some of the weakest of the species. Is anybody keeping a tally of all the people who are dying or are going to die because health services have been monopolised by a single virus? Cancer sufferers not being diagnosed, life improving surgeries postponed, etc, etc.

 

Quick, buy shares in the companies that make face masks. Expect sales to rocket by millions or expect mass non-compliance now that lockdown fatigue has well and truly taken hold.

 

Got to love Albert Camus.

Lifted from Wiki.

Camus undertakes the task of answering what he considers to be the only question of philosophy that matters: Does the realisation of the meaninglessness and absurdity of life necessarily require suicide?

He begins by describing the absurd condition: we build our life on the hope for tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death and is the ultimate enemy; people live their lives as if they were not aware of the certainty of death. Once stripped of its common romanticism, the world is a foreign, strange and inhuman place; true knowledge is impossible and rationality and science cannot explain the world: their stories ultimately end in meaningless abstractions, in metaphors. This is the absurd condition and "from the moment absurdity is recognised, it becomes a passion, the most harrowing of all."

It is not the world that is absurd, nor human thought: the absurd arises when the human need to understand meets the unreasonableness of the world, when the "appetite for the absolute and for unity" meets "the impossibility of reducing this world to a rational and reasonable principle."

He then characterises several philosophies that describe and attempt to deal with this feeling of the absurd, by Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Lev Shestov, Soren Kierkegaard and Edmund Husserl. All of these, he claims, commit "philosophical suicide" by reaching conclusions that contradict the original absurd position, either by abandoning reason and turning to God, as in the case of Kierkegaard and Shestov, or by elevating reason and ultimately arriving at ubiquitous Platonic forms and an abstract god, as in the case of Husserl.

For Camus, who sets out to take the absurd seriously and follow it to its final conclusions, these "leaps" cannot convince. Taking the absurd seriously means acknowledging the contradiction between the desire of human reason and the unreasonable world. Suicide, then, also must be rejected: without man, the absurd cannot exist. The contradiction must be lived; reason and its limits must be acknowledged, without false hope. However, the absurd can never be permanently accepted: it requires constant confrontation, constant revolt.

While the question of human freedom from the metaphysical sense loses interest to the absurd man, he gains freedom in a very concrete sense: no longer bound by hope for a better future or eternity, without a need to pursue life's purpose or to create meaning, "he enjoys a freedom with regard to common rules".

To embrace the absurd implies embracing all that the unreasonable world has to offer. Without meaning in life, there is no scale of values. "What counts is not the best living but the most living."

Thus, Camus arrives at three consequences from fully acknowledging the absurd: revolt, freedom, and passion.

 

Wiki again.

In the last chapter, Camus outlines the legend of Sisyphus who defied the gods and put Death in chains so that no human needed to die. When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. After finally capturing Sisyphus, the gods decided that his punishment would last for all eternity. He would have to push a rock up a mountain; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving Sisyphus to start over. Camus sees Sisyphus as the absurd hero who lives life to the fullest, hates death, and is condemned to a meaningless task.

Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. "The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious."

Camus is interested in Sisyphus's thoughts when marching down the mountain, to start anew. After the stone falls back down the mountain Camus states that "It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end." This is the truly tragic moment when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but "there is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn." Acknowledging the truth will conquer it; Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, keeps pushing. Camus claims that when Sisyphus acknowledges the futility of his task and the certainty of his fate, he is freed to realise the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that "all is well," indeed, that "one must imagine Sisyphus happy."

 

I recall the japanese used to consider unemployment such a sin , that the only noble course of action was suicide ,but in doing so , you became a self employed executioner , thereby an impossible task

 

Would that not be a volunteer? Is a volunteer an employee?

 

It doesn't take much to convince the masses in Brexit Britain that we should all return to normal as soon as possible.
For those of us who take a more global view can I remind you that this remains a deadly disease that we as yet know very little about.
This article for example highlights the fact that it is not merely a respiratory disease.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...19-could-be-worse-than-first-thought-12027348

Mask use in the UK is embarrassing. Apparently only 36% bother with one, whereas it is 80-90% in other countries.
Not exactly difficult to see why this country has one of the highest death rates in the world.
Yet again the same British arrogance that led to the absurdity of Brexit again appears. We think we know better than the rest of the world.
Just maybe we don't ?

 

Captain Pops comes on here from time to time to say that all you need is common sense, and that messaging from the government is not important.
You have just shown how this view is nonsense.

Clearly common sense would suggest that you should wear a mask.
However you don't because Boris hasn't told you to. Unbelievable really.

 

I am responsible for myself and myself only. My common sense tells me I am happy with the risk of not wearing a mask as that risk is infinitely small. I dont need a gov directive to tell me anything, i will use my own assessment of my circumstances every day of the week to decide my own lifestyle. If Boris decides its law to wear one then i will, but if not, i have this great thing called freedom, and i wont.

 

The point is you are not.
Many people are asymptomatic and are carriers of the virus.
I agree that you currently have the choice to go around infecting people but don't you think that is pretty selfish and irresponsible ?
Wearing a mask isn't a sign of weakness, it is a sign of intelligence. and a sign of respect and decency.

You wear a mask to prevent other people from becoming infected by you, and then you wear it to prevent yourself from being infected by others.
In South Korea, Japan and Taiwan who have all had remarkable success in fighting the pandemic wearing a face mask in public is a normal part of daily life.

I would introduce a £500 on the spot fine for anyone not wearing one, and a custodial sentence for a 2nd offence.
The government is too soft to even make it mandatory though. Pathetic.

 

That was nasty of me, and I have deleted the comment. My apologies. I look at this thread rarely nowadays; just cannot be bothered any more. We are all about as flexible in our basic beliefs as a Sheffield-made () stainless steel rod! Further comments and opinions just seem pointless?

 

Face masks are absolutely pointless for shops unless every item and surface in there is disenfected between every single customer. Nobody is wearing gloves in shops and you can hand over cash and receive cash back. Wear a face mask but itch your face or rub your eye then touch the door handle or hand over money and if you have the virus it's going to spread. Should they be used in pubs also? And if so what's the point you have to lower it everytime you have a drink. And again cash being exchanged aswell l. Face masks are being used for appearances only to put the people who are actually worrying about this thing at ease. I'm with Mall. If they make it law then I'll not break the law and I'll wear one where decreed. Until then absolutely pointless so I won't be wearing one unless I'm at work and a customer asks me to. Which would be extremely unlikely.

 

Is that a question?
As for grammer, its a racing forum. I dont proof read or go back to correct errors, as you say, who cares? If QM does thats fine, we are all different.

 

Sorry I disagree, im responsible for absolutely nobody and i live this way through choice, i find it the freedom from it perfect for my health.
Science doesnt seem to agree if masks work and If i have no symptoms im certainly not wearing one unless its law.
Ive 90% isolated since lockdown anyways, If i have symptoms i would 100% isolate.
I agree tenfold the justice system and the freedom we have here from our governments has caused C19 to be a bigger problem than it should of. Places i have lived such as Ukraine, Turkey, Kenya would of clamped down at the start and people follow their government in those countries as if they dont they get hit hard.

 

1. The virus is more likely to spread from person to person so it is far from pointless

2. Pubs are only safe if you sit at a socially distanced table.
if that is the case you wont need a mask. in shops it is different as you are walking around next to other people

3. Cash ? Sorry I didn't realise that some people still used this.
I have only used contactless since March. I doubt I will bother with cash again.
belongs to a different part of history like the cheque book or the stone tablet.

4. Johnson has said today that face masks should be worn in shops.
So you will ignore that yet you will obey the law if it becomes compulsory then ?
looks like Johnson will have to treat the British public like children then and make it mandatory since no one has any common sense anymore.

 

Point 3. You're just been silly. Of course cash is still a thing but this is just another perfect example from you that because you do it then its gospel and everyone should do the same. I don't usually carry my bank card with me when I'm out at work so always have cash on me and everywhere does take it. This you'd know if you'd ventured from your own bubble. Also what about places that don't take card and are cash only?

Point 4. To answer your question I'll wear a face mask if it becomes law and is enforced. So just because the Prime Minister is recommending doesn't mean I'll start wearing one

 

Tesla, never made an annual profit.

 

Yes, in my serious investing days I would be very happy if I had bought a few shares in Tesla a year ago. However, it is now, IMHO, a stock that is extremely likely to fall-to-pieces quickly. An investor holding these shares should really be on his or her toes!